Mancini hails Cesar performance

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini praised the performance of QPR’s Julio Cesar during their 0-0 draw.

The Brazilian made a succession of fine saves to earn the visitors a point, and frustrate title chasing City.

Mancini, who coached Cesar at Inter Milan, congratulated the stopper on a fine performance, but believes his team should have taken all three points:

“Julio is one of the top keepers in the world and he saved his team and I’m very happy for him because I know him very well but I’m very frustrated for us,” he told Sky Sports.

“I think that now QPR is a different team, they don’t concede a lot of space, it is difficult to play against them now because they play with 10 players behind the ball, if you don’t score or find a good solution like we had today in the first half it’s difficult.

“We missed a good chance tonight. We played well, we didn’t concede, but in football you need to score.”

Despite the result, the big story from the City camp was Mario Balotelli’s departure to AC Milan.

The Italian is expected to move to the San Siro ahead of the transfer deadline after a disappointing season with City.

Mancini admitted that he will be sad to see Balotelli leave, but that he believes a move will suit the striker:

“We are very sorry because we love Mario. But I think that he had this big chance to go back to Italy and to play for another top club like Milan.”

With Balotelli’s imminent exit Mancini could be short of attacking options for the rest of the season.

Despite this, he played down talk of drafting in a replacement before the end of the week:

“I don’t know, we have three strikers, we will see, we only have two days it is difficult to get the player now.”